1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system configured to perform remote management of an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, there has been a system configured to remotely monitor the operating condition of image forming apparatuses, such as a copying machine and a printer, connected to a LAN (Local Area Network).
In such a system, each of a plurality of image forming apparatuses communicates with a monitoring host, which monitors the plurality of image forming apparatuses, through a LAN, a WAN (Wide Area Network), and the Internet. Each of the image forming apparatuses may periodically notify the monitoring host of information about, for example, the number of sheets to print. Also, each of the image forming apparatuses may notify the monitoring host of information about jams/alarms/errors with timing information when such an event occurs.
When the monitoring host receives a notification from an image forming apparatus, the monitoring host stores and manages the notified information. Thus, the monitoring host detects the operating condition of the image forming apparatus and also deals with a trouble occurring in the image forming apparatus.
Also, a system has been proposed, which is adapted such that after a lapse of a predetermined time since an image forming apparatus notifies a monitoring host of an occurrence of an error, the image forming apparatus notifies the monitoring host of a status thereof again to make the monitoring host recognize the termination of the error (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-316668).
For example, one of such systems is configured such that a monitoring host detects a frequent jam occurrence condition by measuring an increase in frequency of occurrences of jams while collecting information about jams occurring in the image forming apparatus (see, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 03-293369). Also, when detecting that an occurrence of an error is left unchecked, techniques of notifying a service center that the error continues to occur in the image forming apparatus have been proposed (see, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-321038).
A result of the detection is notified to an administrator of the image forming apparatus and is utilized for prompting a maintenance operation, such as component replacement. Causes of occurrences of jams include not only those requiring component-replacement maintenance, for example, resulting from the wear of a component of the image forming apparatus, but also many accidental ones due to the state of print media to be fed, which may be effected by temperature and humidity at a given time and due to an improper use of the image forming apparatus.
Hitherto, several methods of measuring an increase in frequency of occurrences of jams in the image forming apparatus have been proposed. However, generally, in a case where a maintenance operation is performed to recover from a jam condition after the monitoring host has detected a frequent jam occurrence condition, the frequent occurrence of the jam is often subsequently reduced, so that no jam occurrence notification is outputted.
Therefore, it may be difficult for a serviceman to determine the termination of a frequent jam occurrence condition only by measurement of a high frequency of jams, which is triggered off by the occurrence of a jam. For instance, especially, when the frequent occurrence of jams due to accidental causes is detected, a serviceman may be sent from a sales company in charge of maintenance of the image forming apparatus to perform an unnecessary maintenance operation. Similar problems occur in failures other than jams.
Additionally, the related system configured to recognize the frequency of occurrences of failures, such as jams, determines only the degree of harm caused by the occurrence of the failure. That is, when no jam occurs, the related system performs no particular processing and cannot notify a serviceman of a frequent jam occurrence condition.